Leaving the fields behind, villagers become city slickers(2)

Subsidy

Hehe community is home to nearly 100,000 new urban citizens, all from the same area. They were each paid around 86,000 yuan for their land. Each member of the same household was entitled to buy 30 square meters of a new apartment, meaning that a family of four could buy a 120-sq-m apartment in the community or two 60-sq-m apartments.

The government provided a subsidy of 2,400 yuan for each sq m, and residents can buy apartments in Hehe community at 1,900 yuan per sq m.

That means each farmer made 101,000 yuan, even after buying an apartment.

"They don't know how to manage their assets. Some may go wrong by gambling or visiting prostitutes. To keep them away from temptation, I told them to make proper investments, such as small businesses," Zhu added.

Wu Guihai, a government employee who has 13 years' experience of working with farmers, taught the new residents how to adapt to their new urban identities.

"I know their needs. Middle-aged and senior new urbanites mostly live on social assistance grants. They don't need to work for a living, but they don't have the skills required for city life. I try to show them how important it is for them and their children to work, instead of sitting at home and receiving social benefits forever. I don't want them to feel useless," he said.

Meanwhile, few of the former rural residents had ever seen an elevator. Yang Zhuhui, 41, showed them how to use one safely.

'The small cabin'

"One lady in her 80s, who lived on the 18th floor, didn't know how 'the small cabin' could carry her up and down. She told me that she felt dizzy when she used it and so I always accompanied her in the elevator until she got used to it."

After the training the community became tidier, said Jiang Xinquan, a 70-year-old resident, who used to own a small business in a nearby village.

He said he was quite content with the training he received. "For an old man like me, studying was very difficult. But the teachers were very patient, and I learned a lot, such as how to handle relationships with my neighbors, how to eat healthily and how to care for the local environment."

When he moved into the community in September 2012, the area was full of garbage because the new residents had no idea about keeping the place clean and tidy.

"After the training program, the environment in the community was much improved," he said.

These citizenship programs, to some extent, help to smooth and accelerate the transition process from rural to urban citizens, said Wang Guixin, a professor at Fudan University who specializes in urbanization.

However, he believes that the psychosocial and identity issues - the farmers have experienced great difficulties in reconciling themselves to their new urban identities - have been formed over a long period.

"On the one hand, farmers should learn to be urban social civilians. On the other, native urbanites should be more tolerant of their new neighbors. Instead of labeling and discriminating against them, urban citizens should learn to see the new residents as part of the city," Wang said.

Yuan Guilin, professor of rural education at BeijingNormal University, said it's important to judge the value of the training by its real-life effect.

"How the new urban citizens behave after the training is the key to evaluating it," he said.